Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common musculoskeletal problems that affect patients' daily life. Nowadays, treatment of LBP is very challenging due to the recurrent nature of the problem. This narrative review focuses on massage and spinal manipulation on LBP condition. The other issues consist of epidemiology, etiology, symptoms, and rapport between clinician and patient on treatment were explored. Online electronic search in databases (Ovid TM , Scopus, EMBASE and PubMed) was performed using key words such as LBP, massage, and spinal manipulation. Textbooks and web page are additional sources that were used for gathering information. Literature reported that high incidence of LBP in agriculture areas which is farmer, in the urban area mainly office worker and industrial area mainly factory operator. LBP frequently occurs among office workers, pregnant, and obesity due to poor body mechanics. Building a successful rapport is a single most important factor in a relationship between clinician and patient. Understanding patient's perspective in their illness such as belief about cause, treatment approaches, and quality-of-life will help clinician create plans that are more appropriate to patient's situation and preferences. Patient's trust is the easing way for the clinician to provide treatments. Based on current evidence, there are arrays of conservative treatments shown to be effective in treating LBP. However, massage and spinal manipulation are the most popular among LBP patients because it contributes good effect in reducing pain intensity. Massage preferred by certain patient such as traditional Malay massage, Thai massage, Tui Na because it provide a relaxation on the body. In addition, spinal manipulation also showed a positive outcome on pain reduction and joint hypomobility. LBP is a common problem, and various methods could be used as a treatment. However, traditional massage is fast gaining popularity even in the modernized society.

The traditional Malay massage (TMM), also known locally as urut Melayu, is one of the fields of traditional and complementary medicine. The practices and understanding are originally related to Malay culture in selected hospitals under the Ministry of Health since 2007. This study is to review the available evidence on the effectiveness of TMM as an alternative therapeutic approach to various conditions. An online electronic search in databases (Ovid™ , Scopus, EMBASE and PubMed) was performed using keywords such as Malay massage and urut Melayu. Documents including case studies, case reports, and research studies were examined and analyzed. Two case studies and one qualitative research study about TMM for chronic diseases were explored. It was reported that the majority of those having chronic diseases sought TMM as an alternative treatment to improve mobility and quality of life. The second case study explored the effectiveness of TMM for a postpartum stroke patient, and there was improvement of physical function, mobility and optimizing the activity of daily living for this patient. The third article provided treatment-seeking behavior of poststroke patients and their TMM practitioners. From their interviews with 17 volunteers, they reported that Malay massage is very helpful for their body conditions after stroke due to high blood pressure and postdelivery complications. The patients revealed that TMM has provided them positive, beneficial effects. The review indicated that TMM could serve as an alternative treatment for those having chronic diseases, postpartum stroke and poststroke conditions. Therefore, the current review highlights the role TMM has in view of positive, beneficial effects to improve and optimize mobility, physical function, activity, daily living and quality of life.

The aim of this study is to assess self-medication practice among university students in the Al-Qassim Province of Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional community-based survey was conducted by distributing a self-administered 18-item questionnaire among university students in the Al-Qassim Province of Saudi Arabia in the period between October and December 2012. The participants were selected using a convenience sampling technique. Data were collected from the questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 19. A total of 354 male students with an average age of 21.95 (SD ± 3.43) participated in this study. Our study showed that self-medication among male students was high (86.6%) compared to results shown in other studies in the same region. Headache (59.9%), cough/cold (41%) and fever (24.6%) were the most common symptoms associated with self-medication. Congruent with the medical conditions reported, the most widely used medications without prescriptions were paracetamol (34.7%), followed by antibiotics (31.4%) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (28.7%). Our study shows that antibiotics were sometimes irrationally used for self-treatment of cough and fever. Self-medication was highly frequent among the students. Influence of TV advertisements, high accessibility of pharmacies and convenience stores, as well as good buying power were found to be leading factors for self-medication among male university students.

Introduction: Good blood pressure (BP) control is one of the aims of hypertension disease management. Consistently achieving the targeted BP could reduce patient's risk of developing the complication of hypertension.
Materials and Methods: This study is a prospective cohort study aimed to investigate the blood pressure reading among in patients in a public tertiary hospital in northern Malaysia and to determine predictor of good BP control among patients. Patients were followed from their admission day until discharge. Data were collected by the researcher from the medical records. Information collected were BP reading on admission, day 1 and discharge. Other information includes demographic data, social factors, medication name and number, co-morbidities, target organ damage, cardiovascular risk factors. Descriptive analysis was done to determine the characteristic of patients and logistic regression was done to identify factors associated with BP control.
Results: A total of 400 patients were followed up from admission till discharge. BP was controlled in 24% on admission and in 54% of patients on discharge. Multivariate analysis on admission revealed that the predictors of BP control were the use of diuretics and statin. Factors identified to be associated with poor BP control were diabetes mellitus, cerebrovascular disease and retinopathy. Multivariate analysis on discharge showed that the predictors of good BP control were diuretics and beta-blockers and the predictors of poor BP control were diabetes, chronic kidney disease, diabetic nephropathy, cerebrovascular disease and number of comorbidity.
Conclusion: These results demonstrated that hypertension was poorly controlled among in-patients and that BP control was better on discharge than on admission. Patients with diabetes mellitus, renal disease and cerebrovascular disease were more likely to have poor hypertension control.